My TakeShut down the MTR until further notice

Like the government, the management of the MTR Corporation is running around like a headless chicken. It doesn’t know how to protect its own staff and facilities, or to serve the public at a time of extreme unrest. No wonder; it is mostly owned by the government.

In a world turned upside down, we have groups such as the Public Transport Research Team accusing the train operator of inconveniencing people and aggravating protesters. This is after practically every major MTR station and transit hub has been repeatedly vandalised, their staff physically assaulted.

“I think the MTR unnecessarily closed too many stations and made unreasonable arrangements without valid reasons, causing great inconvenience to passengers and grievances from the protesters,” a team spokesman said last month.

Last week, on National Day, the group’s representative, Quentin Cheng Hin-kei, again blasted the MTR, calling its shutting down of stations “outrageous and totally unacceptable”, adding it was helping police to crack down on protesters and that the operator was “a puppet of the police”.

“The MTR Corp has totally disregarded the public’s need for public transport and forgotten its service pledge to the Hong Kong people,” he said. “If the MTR is so afraid of being attacked, it can consider closing shop entirely.”